Question 1

What is the state language proficiency check, and who needs it?

Accepted Answer

It is the adult Latvian proficiency examination, offered at six levels from A1 to C2, and its procedure is set by Cabinet Regulation No. 157. Basic level, 2nd degree (A2) is the level the law attaches to two statuses: EU long-term resident status and the permanent residence permit. Beyond immigration, the same examination at A1 to C2 is required for many occupations — there the level comes not from a residence status but from the list of professions in Annex 1 to Regulation No. 157.

Question 2

Which level do I need for a permanent residence permit or EU long-term resident status?

Accepted Answer

A2 for both. Paragraph 6 of Regulation No. 157 states it in a single sentence: a person may apply for EU long-term resident status or for a permanent residence permit if they have acquired the state language at least at basic level, 2nd degree (A2). There is no higher level for one and lower level for the other. The requirement itself comes from Section 24(5) of the Immigration Law and from Section 3(1)(2) of the law on EU long-term resident status.

Question 3

What does the A2 check consist of?

Accepted Answer

Four parts. Each is worth 15 points, 60 in total. Listening and reading are taken on a computer, writing is on paper, and speaking is taken one candidate at a time, in person or by videoconference, with an audio or video recording. All four parts are taken in one sitting: Listening — 25 minutes, 3 tasks, 15 points; Reading — 30 minutes, 3 tasks, 15 points; Writing — 35 minutes, 3 tasks, 15 points; Speaking — 10–15 minutes, 3 tasks, 15 points

Question 4

What is the pass mark?

Accepted Answer

At least 60 % in each skill separately — that is, at least 9 points out of 15 in listening, in reading, in writing and in speaking. There is no pooled total: paragraph 47 of Regulation No. 157 requires the result to be not lower than 60 percent in each skill. So 45 points out of 60 spread evenly is a pass, while the same 45 points with 8 in writing is not. This is the single most misunderstood feature of the examination, and it is why preparation should be aimed at your weakest skill rather than at your total.

Question 5

Do I have to sit all four parts?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The result is assessed only if the candidate sits every part of the examination. If a part is skipped or abandoned, nothing is graded at all — including the parts already completed. In practice everything happens in one session: listening and reading in the information system first, then writing on paper, then speaking, one candidate at a time.

Question 6

How many people pass?

Accepted Answer

In the government open-data set covering March to September 2023, 17,656 people sat the examination at A2 and 6,421 passed — about 36 %. In other words, nearly two out of every three candidates in that window did not pass. Read the figure with its caveat: the published data covers only seven months, and those are precisely the months when a large number of people were sitting the examination against a statutory deadline, so the percentage does not transfer to an ordinary year. The durable finding is a different one — A2 accounts for more than 90 % of all state language proficiency checks, and the failure share within it is high.

Question 7

What does it cost, and who does not pay?

Accepted Answer

The state fee is EUR 52. It is not paid by Latvian citizens, Latvian non-citizens, or citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland. People holding low-income or needy-person status are also exempt on producing the relevant document. The fee must be paid no later than seven working days before the examination; if it has not been paid and no status document is produced, the candidate is not admitted. The fee is not refunded either after a fail or after a no-show.

Question 8

Who does not sit the examination at all?

Accepted Answer

Paragraph 7 of Regulation No. 157 lists the cases in which state language proficiency is evidenced without sitting the examination: basic, secondary or higher education obtained in Latvian within the formal education system; a minority education programme completed before 1 September 2025 together with the grade-9 centralised examination in Latvian; the Latvian baccalaureate examination passed at a European School; one of the health conditions listed in Annex 2 to Regulation No. 157, evidenced by the relevant medical opinion; being under 15 years of age; being 75 years of age or older

Question 9

How and how far in advance do I register?

Accepted Answer

No later than seven working days before the examination — through the state services portal, by an electronically signed document sent to the official e-address, in person at a unified state and local government customer service centre, or by post (in which case the postmark must be at least ten working days before). The application also names the level and degree you will sit: you register for a level, you do not "land" on one according to your score. The time and place are published at least two months in advance, and if you intend to sit the examination abroad you have to make contact at least three months ahead.

Question 10

When do results arrive, and what if I disagree with mine?

Accepted Answer

The decision is available in the portal e-service from the seventh working day after the examination. It records the points and the percentage in each skill and in total; the level and degree are entered only if you passed, otherwise the decision records that the examination was not passed. The decision can be contested before the appeal commission under the Administrative Procedure Law, and then appealed to the administrative court. A printed copy sent by post is a paid service.

Question 11

What happens if I fail just one skill?

Accepted Answer

Then the examination is not passed — the 60 % threshold applies to each skill separately and a weak skill is not offset by strong ones. You register again in the ordinary way. A certificate you already hold does not disappear: the chronologically last decision governs, except that an earlier decision survives if you sat a higher level or degree and did not pass it. Regulation No. 157 sets no general waiting period after a plain fail — the six-month bar there applies only to a breach of the examination rules — so confirm the exact re-registration arrangements before you file.

Question 12

Do Latvian non-citizens have to sit the A2 examination?

Accepted Answer

For residence purposes, no. Non-citizen status is itself permanent, so the language examination is not a condition of continuing to live in Latvia. It becomes relevant in three situations: if the person works in an occupation for which Annex 1 to Regulation No. 157 sets a language level; if the person chooses to obtain EU long-term resident status; or if the person naturalises — and then it is not this examination but the naturalisation one that is sat. Non-citizens are also exempt from the state fee.

Question 13

What do the 2022–2024 transitional provisions actually require?

Accepted Answer

The transitional provisions of the Immigration Law changed, in two stages, the basis of residence for some Russian citizens who previously lived in Latvia on a permanent residence permit. The 2022 amendments removed Section 24(1)(8) of the Immigration Law and provided that the permits held on that basis were valid only until a set date unless EU long-term resident status was applied for, which requires A2. In 2023 further deadline extensions were added, together with a separate arrangement for those who did not pass the examination or had a justified reason for not sitting it — a two-year permit to stay, granted on an undertaking to learn the language. The 2024 amendments extended the same mechanism to permits issued before 2003. Several different official estimates of how many people are affected are in public circulation, so we do not print a single figure here. Always check your own deadline and legal basis in your own case.

Question 14

Does this apply to Ukrainian civilians under temporary protection?

Accepted Answer

To part of that group, yes, and with a publicly announced date. Amendments to the law on support for Ukrainian civilians impose a duty, for the purposes of professional and official duties, to acquire the state language at least at basic level, 2nd degree (A2) within two years of temporary protection being granted. For those whose temporary protection was granted or applied for by 31 December 2025, the two-year period starts on 1 January 2026, so the requirement bites from 1 January 2028. Two important qualifications: the duty is worded by reference to performing professional and official duties rather than as a blanket duty on everyone, and its exact scope is set by Cabinet regulation; healthcare professionals and pharmacists are on a different, higher level with a different deadline. Check your own situation before assuming the requirement applies to you.

Question 15

Is the naturalisation examination the same examination?

Accepted Answer

No. It is a different examination, under a different regulation, in a different format and with different arithmetic. The naturalisation language test is set by Cabinet Regulation No. 973 under the Citizenship Law: a 90-minute written part and an interview of up to 15 minutes, 25 points per skill, and it is passed if at least 16 points are scored in each skill. On top of that comes a separate test on the basics of the Constitution, the text of the national anthem and the basics of Latvian history and culture. The law names no CEFR level for it, so claims that it "corresponds to B1" do not come from the legislation. Recognition runs one way only: the transitional provisions of the Immigration Law accept a state language proficiency check passed in the naturalisation process as evidence of language acquisition. It does not work in the other direction.

Question 16

Does the school centralised examination replace this check?

Accepted Answer

In certain cases yes, and Regulation No. 157 says which: a basic-education certificate showing the centralised examination in Latvian, and a general secondary education certificate showing the same examination, are among the documents that evidence state language proficiency. One frequent mistake belongs here: the table of percentages and CEFR levels published in connection with the centralised examination is a conversion table for a school examination result, not the way the adult proficiency check is scored. In the adult check you register for a level and either pass it or do not.

Question 17

How should I prepare?

Accepted Answer

Practise all four parts in exactly the format they take in the examination, and budget your time by your weakest skill rather than by your total — the threshold applies to each skill separately. This site offers free exam-format tasks for all four parts and writing and speaking practice with AI feedback. The score you get here is practice feedback, not an official examination result.

Question 18

Is the language requirement for a job the same as the one for a residence status?

Accepted Answer

The examination is the same one, but the obligation comes from two different places, and that changes the level you need. For a residence status — EU long-term resident status or the permanent residence permit — paragraph 6 of Regulation No. 157 requires A2, and only A2. For work, the obligation comes from the State Language Law, and the level depends on the post: Annex 1 to Regulation No. 157 assigns levels from A1 to C2 to listed professions. Two practical consequences follow. First, for some posts A2 is not enough even though it is enough for immigration purposes. Second, the occupational requirement applies to Latvian citizens and non-citizens too — citizenship changes nothing there. Work out which of the two reasons applies to you before you register, because it determines which level you name in the application.

Question 19

What does the examination day look like?

Accepted Answer

All four parts are taken in one session, in a fixed order. Listening (25 minutes) and reading (30 minutes) come first, on a computer in the information system, in the same seat. Then the paper sheets for writing are handed out (35 minutes) — blue or black pen only. After writing, candidates leave the room and speaking is taken one at a time, with the identity document shown a second time; the conversation is recorded. No more than ten candidates share a room for the written parts, phones and smartwatches stay in the bag, and no aids are allowed. The listening recordings are played twice — which is also a good reason to impose the same limit on yourself when practising, instead of replaying one clip five times.

Question 20

Can the examination be taken outside Latvia?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is provided for, but with a much longer lead time. Paragraph 26 of Regulation No. 157 requires the place and time abroad to be agreed at least three months in advance — not the seven working days that apply in Latvia. The published government data for 2023 records sittings in the USA and Canada alongside the Latvian cities, so sessions abroad do happen in practice. Always agree the specific place and date in advance: there is no standing public schedule abroad in the way there is for Rīga, Daugavpils, Liepāja, Rēzekne and Ventspils.

Question 21

Where do candidates usually come unstuck?

Accepted Answer

The first and biggest trap is the marking rule itself: the threshold applies to each skill separately, so strong results in three parts do not offset one weak part. If preparation time is limited, it belongs in your weakest skill, not in the one that is already comfortable. The second is the second writing task — five news-headline lines in which a word given in brackets has to be written in the correct inflected form; what costs points there is grammar and endings rather than vocabulary, and that can be drilled deliberately. The third is the third speaking task, where you do not answer a question but have to ask a full one to obtain a detail missing from a small ad — many people find that unexpected, because the rest of their preparation has been about answering. The fourth is less obvious: if a part is not sat or is abandoned, nothing at all is graded, so walking out of the speaking part "because the rest went badly anyway" means walking out with no result at all. The point bands for writing and speaking are not published, so we do not promise you an exact "how many points for what" — practise against the task format and the required length instead.

Feature	State language proficiency check (A2)	Naturalisation examination
What it is a precondition for	EU long-term resident status and the permanent residence permit	Acquiring citizenship by naturalisation
Where it is set out	Cabinet Regulation No. 157	Cabinet Regulation No. 973 (under the Citizenship Law)
Level	Basic level, 2nd degree (A2)	No CEFR level is named in the law
Parts	Four: listening, reading, writing, speaking	A 90-minute written part plus an interview of up to 15 minutes, and a separate test on the Constitution, the text of the anthem and the basics of history and culture
Points	15 points per part, 60 in total	25 points per skill
You pass if	You score at least 60 % (9 out of 15) in EACH of the four skills separately	You score at least 16 out of 25 in each skill; the knowledge test has its own separate thresholds
State fee	EUR 52; free for Latvian citizens, Latvian non-citizens and citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland	Regulation No. 973 sets no separate examination fee
Re-sitting	Regulation No. 157 sets no general waiting period after a plain fail; the six-month bar applies only after a breach of the examination rules	The second and third attempts no earlier than three months apart, and no more than three attempts per application
Does this site prepare you for it	Yes — all four parts, in the official format	No

The Latvian A2 state language check — frequently asked questions

Two different examinations — do not confuse them

Frequently asked questions